I don't know. I wish for them to succeed but as someone who's had a GOG account since before it officially launched, I have seen them claim to refocus on classics at least twice before, with meager effects. It's gotten bad enough that some games ostensibly under GOG's mission are actually better off on Steam and I don't think it's entirely on the publisher.
The examples chosen to hightlight the program on gog's own page for this initiative also do not fill with confidence. If you read between the lines it turns out that for instance it took them five years (!) to fix a crashing HoMM3 intro in a language they added, and likewise they only checked if Diablo/Hellfire even works on win 10/11 yesterday, years after they started selling it.
More power to them, if they keep at it, but I don't see anything to get excited over yet.
Not crashing, just the intros don't get played. Considering the intros and how stilted they are, it was probably thought to be a feature.
- - -
Verifying in this case means they are marking it in the store as expected to run on such platforms. Different concept from "can run on those platforms"
Hmm, this is kind of off-topic, but I'm unable to skip the intro on the HoMM3 I own on GOG. Not that I play HoMM3 often, but I'm still kind of pissed off because they won't fix that.
I have flip-flopped between GOG and Steam for many years. This has correlated with my use of Linux and Linux's support for gaming.
When I first learned of GOG and I was still primarily gaming on Windows I tended to choose GOG over Steam since I prefer their DRM-free games. However since it became much easier to game on Linux (thanks to Proton and the work of Valve), I tended to start buying more on Steam since it was so much easier to get games working through their platform. Since Heroic launcher came out I have now switched back to primarily buying from GOG again.
The big difference is being able to download games / installers locally and expect them to work without having to first sign in to an account.
you can only do that with gog, not with steam
ps: however, there have been a few games where multiplayer features required a gog galaxy instance, which I don't agree with given their whole no-DRM spiel
This is a good initiative to make it easier to run old games and simplifying the effort involved in making them fit modern monitors and operating systems.
I hope we see them more focused on preserving access to the games too, they've talked before about how until copyright is reformed we need to use the justice system to inherit accounts and the games in them, hopefully some of their efforts are focused on that reform especially now that the EU is investigating whether we should "own" our digital libraries.
In the case of transfer of ownership there's little GOG can do (legally) except lobby. But from a technical standpoint access to the games is guaranteed by the DRM-free part. You can have the binaries free of encumbrances, effectively owning the game (binary). Possession is nine-tenths of the law.
I think I've bought all the classics I want from GOG already. Their biggest selling point is that you own the games you buy from them it's not a licence like steam.
It's still a license, just more lenient and more customer friendly.
Would like to know what their income stream percentage is, for being an sink for third party platform game keys from Prime Gaming (vs Epic store, Steam being suspiciously absent).
Seems like the only time I visit GOG these days regularily.
---
... “GOG games” or “GOG videos” respectively and when we talk about them all together they are “GOG content”.
2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
Once upon a time, I loved buying my games on GOG, most of the time at full price.
But then I’ve been burnt more than I should by developers who then forgot that this platform exists and go all in on their Steam customers : cross play ? That’s for Steam. Announcement of mods support ? … on Steam Workshop !
The more recent example in my mind is Timberborn : I love this game and I bought it on GOG because I want my games as DRM free as I can. Boom, they recently added offcicial mod support … on Steam !
But ! I must say once again : Big up to Satisfactory devs who announced that they won’t support Steam Workshop to not harm their Epic customers. We have a good old semi official community managed mod loader (ficsit.app) and the modding community is thriving as much as it would on Steam workshop.
I just want to add : I have nothing against Steam, it’s one of the companies I still consider to be great (as a customer at least) and I have a huge Steam library. My issue is more with the developers selling their games on all the platforms then making anything non Steam second class citizens. And it’s especially infuriating with games who launches only on Epic Games because they have negotiated a temporary exclusivity (which was the case of Satisfactory, but for once they managed it well) and then release a Steam version with more features.
There's a spreadsheet[0] named "Games that treat GOG customers as 2nd Class" that is being semi-regularly updated where you can find out about this. I've also made a Firefox Add-On[1] that uses this spreadsheet to add the data while browsing GOG.com.
Something I've noticed 'accumulating' for myself over the years is the centralization on steam, which rubs me up the wrong way for PC which is a largely open platform. I'd say it's under the "this is a small/tiny problem" category in the present, but "this could be a problem" is possible in the future when it doesn't need to be. It's a huge sprawling issue though, involving all the different customers of steam/valve on the gamer/consumer side and developer/publisher, and what each of them gets out of it.
It's interesting to look at in the context of long term preservation though, as most games are going to do the majority of their business early in their lives then developers and gamers move on to something else. Whatever state the game (and the organization that made it) is 10+ years later is likely a low priority compared to shipping it and staying afloat.
Patches are also often delayed on GOG compared to Steam (usually by a couple days, but in extreme cases even weeks). Achievements and changelogs are sometimes neglected as well.
To my knowledge you can still download all offline installers without needing to ever use their launcher.
That being said, their launcher, GOG Galaxy[0] is amazing, and allows you to get a full overview of your games library across several services like GOG, Steam, Epic, etc. all in one place.
> Classic games are only 20 percent of GOG's catalog, and the firm hasn't actually called itself "Good Old Games" in 12 years. And yet, today, GOG announces that it is making "a significant commitment of resources" toward a new GOG Preservation Program.
I don't know. I wish for them to succeed but as someone who's had a GOG account since before it officially launched, I have seen them claim to refocus on classics at least twice before, with meager effects. It's gotten bad enough that some games ostensibly under GOG's mission are actually better off on Steam and I don't think it's entirely on the publisher.
The examples chosen to hightlight the program on gog's own page for this initiative also do not fill with confidence. If you read between the lines it turns out that for instance it took them five years (!) to fix a crashing HoMM3 intro in a language they added, and likewise they only checked if Diablo/Hellfire even works on win 10/11 yesterday, years after they started selling it.
More power to them, if they keep at it, but I don't see anything to get excited over yet.
Not crashing, just the intros don't get played. Considering the intros and how stilted they are, it was probably thought to be a feature.
- - -
Verifying in this case means they are marking it in the store as expected to run on such platforms. Different concept from "can run on those platforms"
Hmm, this is kind of off-topic, but I'm unable to skip the intro on the HoMM3 I own on GOG. Not that I play HoMM3 often, but I'm still kind of pissed off because they won't fix that.
Which classic games are better on Steam than they are on GoG?
Buy HOMM3 then you can use the content with VCMI and have an overall better experience in my opinion.
I have flip-flopped between GOG and Steam for many years. This has correlated with my use of Linux and Linux's support for gaming.
When I first learned of GOG and I was still primarily gaming on Windows I tended to choose GOG over Steam since I prefer their DRM-free games. However since it became much easier to game on Linux (thanks to Proton and the work of Valve), I tended to start buying more on Steam since it was so much easier to get games working through their platform. Since Heroic launcher came out I have now switched back to primarily buying from GOG again.
The big difference is being able to download games / installers locally and expect them to work without having to first sign in to an account.
you can only do that with gog, not with steam
ps: however, there have been a few games where multiplayer features required a gog galaxy instance, which I don't agree with given their whole no-DRM spiel
Gog gave up on linux so quickly that I gave on them
Yep, since Heroic started supporting savegame sync and achievments, GoG became a really good option for Linux gamers (and Steam Deck) again.
This is a good initiative to make it easier to run old games and simplifying the effort involved in making them fit modern monitors and operating systems.
I hope we see them more focused on preserving access to the games too, they've talked before about how until copyright is reformed we need to use the justice system to inherit accounts and the games in them, hopefully some of their efforts are focused on that reform especially now that the EU is investigating whether we should "own" our digital libraries.
In the case of transfer of ownership there's little GOG can do (legally) except lobby. But from a technical standpoint access to the games is guaranteed by the DRM-free part. You can have the binaries free of encumbrances, effectively owning the game (binary). Possession is nine-tenths of the law.
I think I've bought all the classics I want from GOG already. Their biggest selling point is that you own the games you buy from them it's not a licence like steam.
It's still a license, just more lenient and more customer friendly.
Would like to know what their income stream percentage is, for being an sink for third party platform game keys from Prime Gaming (vs Epic store, Steam being suspiciously absent).
Seems like the only time I visit GOG these days regularily.
---
... “GOG games” or “GOG videos” respectively and when we talk about them all together they are “GOG content”.
2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User...
Once upon a time, I loved buying my games on GOG, most of the time at full price.
But then I’ve been burnt more than I should by developers who then forgot that this platform exists and go all in on their Steam customers : cross play ? That’s for Steam. Announcement of mods support ? … on Steam Workshop !
The more recent example in my mind is Timberborn : I love this game and I bought it on GOG because I want my games as DRM free as I can. Boom, they recently added offcicial mod support … on Steam !
But ! I must say once again : Big up to Satisfactory devs who announced that they won’t support Steam Workshop to not harm their Epic customers. We have a good old semi official community managed mod loader (ficsit.app) and the modding community is thriving as much as it would on Steam workshop.
I just want to add : I have nothing against Steam, it’s one of the companies I still consider to be great (as a customer at least) and I have a huge Steam library. My issue is more with the developers selling their games on all the platforms then making anything non Steam second class citizens. And it’s especially infuriating with games who launches only on Epic Games because they have negotiated a temporary exclusivity (which was the case of Satisfactory, but for once they managed it well) and then release a Steam version with more features.
There's a spreadsheet[0] named "Games that treat GOG customers as 2nd Class" that is being semi-regularly updated where you can find out about this. I've also made a Firefox Add-On[1] that uses this spreadsheet to add the data while browsing GOG.com.
[0]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zjwUN1mtJdCkgtTDRB2I...
[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/gog-2nd-class...
Something I've noticed 'accumulating' for myself over the years is the centralization on steam, which rubs me up the wrong way for PC which is a largely open platform. I'd say it's under the "this is a small/tiny problem" category in the present, but "this could be a problem" is possible in the future when it doesn't need to be. It's a huge sprawling issue though, involving all the different customers of steam/valve on the gamer/consumer side and developer/publisher, and what each of them gets out of it.
It's interesting to look at in the context of long term preservation though, as most games are going to do the majority of their business early in their lives then developers and gamers move on to something else. Whatever state the game (and the organization that made it) is 10+ years later is likely a low priority compared to shipping it and staying afloat.
Some modders only release their content on Steam Workshop and you cannot access it without a license for the base game.
Arma 3 server admins have to download mods on their gaming computer and then manually move those files over to the server computer.
I also remember a Total War: Warhammer mod creator calling Epic customers thieves when they asked Steam users for the mod files.
Patches are also often delayed on GOG compared to Steam (usually by a couple days, but in extreme cases even weeks). Achievements and changelogs are sometimes neglected as well.
kudos to you for writing to the developers to complain then!
Still hoping for Black & White
I used to like GOG until they tried to force you to launch games through their own launcher instead of them being their own standalone applications.
To my knowledge you can still download all offline installers without needing to ever use their launcher.
That being said, their launcher, GOG Galaxy[0] is amazing, and allows you to get a full overview of your games library across several services like GOG, Steam, Epic, etc. all in one place.
[0]: https://www.gog.com/galaxy
That's not true at all - the games are still downloadable from the website and every single one of them is a standalone app.
Which game are you talking about?
you can download all games without galaxy.
I use lgogdownloader on linux: https://github.com/Sude-/lgogdownloader
I bought a MacBook Air for my wife, I hope she will find something there)
"Refocusing" when it has been up since 2008.
> Classic games are only 20 percent of GOG's catalog, and the firm hasn't actually called itself "Good Old Games" in 12 years. And yet, today, GOG announces that it is making "a significant commitment of resources" toward a new GOG Preservation Program.